Operations manager for the Miami office of construction firm Robins & Morton, Johnathan Peavy has nearly two decades of experience building complex healthcare facilities. However, the last decade of his career has been dedicated to becoming an expert in South Florida construction and growing Robins & Morton’s presence in the area.
Peavy boasts a long and successful track record with the company, beginning as an intern in 2005. Shortly after graduating from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Peavy came on board with Robins & Morton full time.
Throughout his career, he has served in project management and oversight roles on high-profile healthcare projects. In 18 years, he has contributed to the success of more than 100 projects – approximately 90% in the healthcare sector – totaling nearly $1.7 billion.
Committed to continuing education, Peavy has also pursued – and earned – a host of advanced credentials, including U.S. Green Building Council’s Leader in Energy Efficient Design (LEED AP), American Society of Healthcare Engineers Certified Healthcare Constructor, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Construction Quality Management (CQ-M).
In 2020, Peavy was promoted to lead the company’s Miami office.
“The population in South Florida continues to boom, and there’s been consistent demand for healthcare construction,” Peavy said. “Not only does Robins & Morton know the area and how to build successfully here, but we also have great relationships with the trade contractor market and are extremely experienced healthcare builders.”
Peavy’s statements are impressive and are solidly backed by the company’s resume and reputation. Robins & Morton ranks second on Modern Healthcare magazine’s Top General Contractors list and has specialized in healthcare construction for more than half of its 77-year history. Currently, healthcare sector projects account for 86% of the company’s total revenue.
“Uniquely Challenging and Uniquely Rewarding”
With a background in both engineering and design, Peavy has always been captivated by the complex and specialized field of healthcare construction – a specialization that requires experts to constantly keep up with new technology, revise best practices, and adapt to changing standards for quality and safety. However, knowing that he is building structures that will have a lasting impact on his community makes Peavy proud to go the extra mile.
“I take pride in every project from start to finish,” he says. “In healthcare construction, lives depend on a job well done – and I know there’s a good chance that I, or someone I love, could be receiving treatment there down the road.”
Robins & Morton is currently working on eight medical campuses in South Florida, with construction contracts totaling nearly $800 million, and Peavy has had a hand in bringing many of them to reality.
When Hurricane Irma struck the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm in 2017, gusting winds destroyed the local Fishermen’s Community Hospital. Over the next four years, Peavy and his team set to work with Baptist Health South Florida to build a new, 39,500-square-foot facility, restoring critical access to emergency, intensive and oncological care for area residents.
“In the Keys, you’re very isolated between healthcare options,” Peavy said. “You have Marathon, and you have Key West, but there’s an hour or two difference between them. So, building a standalone, full-service hospital for residents – raised to prevent flooding and resilient to storm damage – was something people really needed.”
No less remarkable was Peavy’s most recent project: the landmark three-year vertical expansion of the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. A four-story, 165,000-square-foot medical facility built directly onto an occupied children’s hospital below, the project was fraught with challenges – including the unexpected arrival of COVID-19 two weeks after construction began — and required approximately 800 targeted utility shutdowns.
“For kids, visiting a hospital can be scary,” said Peavy. “Our responsibility was to build a space where they could feel safe and have fun while receiving the best possible care. From day one, our team was motivated to go above and beyond.”
Looking to the Future
As new trends emerge in healthcare construction – from green building and carbon reduction efforts to cost-saving prefabrication – Peavy is committed to staying at the leading edge, utilizing the best tools available for the project at hand. His team practices that approach daily as they take on ambitious projects, from a 90,000-square-foot surgical institute at Jupiter Medical Center to the seven-story, 363,000-square-foot UHealth at SoLé Mia.
“When you hire Robins & Morton, you’re not only hiring a firm; you’re creating a true partnership,” he said. “From start to finish, we confront challenges together and build solutions together – and as competitive, experienced healthcare builders, we pride ourselves on being the best possible partners for our clients.”
